Wyser-Pratte ‘Strongly Denies’ Insider Trading Claims by EEM

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Guy Wyser-Pratte “strongly denies”
accusations of insider trading made against him by Francois
Gontier, chief executive officer of French investment company
Electricite et Eaux de Madagascar.

The New York-based investor didn’t use privileged
information in making share purchases, as Gontier alleged in a
complaint to French prosecutors, according to Wyser-Pratte’s
Paris lawyer, Antoine Arebalo-Camus.

Wyser-Pratte “is perfectly serene,” said Arebalo-Camus,
who hasn’t seen the original complaint, just a report today in
Investir magazine. “He strongly denies these allegations, which
are silly and make no sense at all,” and is considering suing
for defamation, the lawyer said in a phone interview.

Wyser-Pratte joined the EEM board in June and filed a
complaint alleging misuse of corporate funds and improper
accounting at the company. The report of the complaint comes a
month before an EEM shareholder meeting which will consider a
resolution to remove him from the board, according to an agenda
released today.

Gontier denied any allegations related to the timing of the
complaint ahead of the meeting, he said in a phone interview
today. Separately, EEM said the complaint was prompted by new
information and that Wyser-Pratte has been working with other
shareholders to pressure EEM management.

Wyser-Pratte owns a 13 percent stake in EEM directly and
controls 24.6 percent of the voting rights in an accord with
other shareholders.

France’s financial markets regulator, the Autorite des
Marches Financiers, has been reviewing EEM market disclosures
for over a year, Camus said, and has questioned Wyser-Pratte
about various share purchases. If the AMF had found evidence of
wrongdoing, it would have been obliged to report it to the
prosecutors directly, Arebalo-Camus said.

Gontier said the AMF inquiry is “completely separate.”

Calls to the Paris prosecutors and AMF for comment weren’t
immediately returned.